[Nederlandse versie] Jaap de Ruig is a Dutch visual artist and filmmaker who lives in Amsterdam. In 2009 he completed The Source - One Day in a Roma settlement in Romania, a film that premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. His other works have been shown at exhibitions in museums and art galleries throughout Europe. In 2015 he completed the project What David Sees, with a book, a video installation, an exhibition and a documentary. Commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art De Domijnen in Sittard he made in 2017 De woonwagen, dat ben ik (The living wagon, that's me). He worked with travellers in the area, who lent him their miniature living wagons. Jaap de Ruig is currently working on new projects in which animals are the protagonists.

Facebook & Instagram

Every other day Jaap de Ruig posts an image from his archive on Facebook and Instagram.

Virtual Museum

This site is a virtual museum. Visitors can wander the halls. A fragment from shorts and installations can be seen. The sidewalls are clickable too. Texts on the work of Jaap de Ruig and acvcan be found in thelibrary.

Statement

Video and film make use of the existing reality in order to create a new reality which investigates the existing one. Anything can be recorded: suffering, death, the struggle between man and nature and between individuals. Especially in my early work animal behavior played an important role as a metaphor for human life. In 2007 I made a series of life-size video installations 'The Army of Split Souls', in which I multiplied myself. Each installation represents archetypal values like anxiety, loneliness or liberation. But humour is not lacking, without humour life becomes unbearable.